story // 4 dispatches over 196 days
The mining story
From apr 9 to oct 22. It travelled bitcoinminingenergy. Every dispatch below uses at least one of its words: “mining”.
- Two Papers Reframe Bitcoin's Quantum Threat as Mostly Misunderstood
The week after Google's quantum paper compressed the estimated hardware threshold for breaking Bitcoin's cryptography, two academic papers pushed back on how the threat is being framed in crypto media. One found that a quantum 51% attack on Bitcoin mining would require star-level energy. Another replicated every major quantum factoring breakthrough of the past 20 years using a 1981 home computer, an abacus, and a dog. Neither dismisses the threat. Both refocus it on where it actually sits.
“mining”
- Bitcoin Difficulty Rose 5.92% at Block 971,712, the Largest Increase Since June
Bitcoin's mining difficultydifficultyA protocol setting that adjusts every ~2 weeks to keep blocks arriving about every 10 minutes, rising and falling with hashrate.See it on the site → reset to 140.58 trillion at block 971,712 on October 16, up 5.92% from 132.72 trillion and the largest increase since the +7.15% adjustment on June 27. The same Bitcoin now pays miners about 5.6% less per unit of hashratehashrateThe total computing power securing the Bitcoin network, in hashes per second — a measure of how much work backs the chain.See it on the site →: at the October 15 close of $82,133.70, subsidy-only hashpricehashpriceWhat a miner earns per unit of hashpower per day — revenue divided by hashrate. It falls as competition rises or price drops.See it on the site → falls from $38.90 to $36.73 per PH/sPH/sPetahashes per second: a quadrillion guesses a second, the unit for a fleet of mining machines. One current machine does about 0.2 PH/s (200 TH/s). per day.
“mining”
- Texas Hub Power Averaged About $42 a Megawatt-Hour Over the Past Month. Mining Broke Even Near $82
Between September 15 and October 14, 2026, daily average real-time prices at ERCOTERCOTThe Electric Reliability Council of Texas: the operator of most of Texas's power grid and its wholesale electricity market, home to many US Bitcoin miners.'s four trading hubs ran $37–42 per MWhMWhMegawatt-hour, 1,000 kWh: the unit wholesale power is priced in. $76 per MWh is 7.6¢ per kWh, the unit on a household bill. on the days with data, about half the $78–85 per MWh a 20 J/THJ/THJoules per terahash: how much electricity a mining machine burns for each unit of work. Lower is more efficient. New machines are around 15–20; older ones 30 or more. Bitcoin miner could pay and still cover electricity. Only ERCOT North crossed breakevenbreakeven power priceThe most a miner can pay for electricity and still cover it from what its machines earn. Below it, running pays; above it, switching off saves money. Electricity only.See it on the site →, on September 16 and 17. MISO's Indiana hub averaged $64 and crossed it on six days.
“mining”
- Oil Rose 85% in a Year to $108. Natural Gas, the Biggest Fuel for Texas Power, Rose 4%. That Is Why Mining Still Pays
U.S. crude oil closed at $107.89 a barrel on October 20, up 85% from a year earlier. The U.S. benchmark natural gas price closed at $3.10, up 4%. For Bitcoin miners the gas price is the one that matters: gas plants make the largest share of Texas grid power, and at $3.10 their fuel costs about 2.3¢ per kWh, against the roughly 7.6¢ a typical modern mining machine can pay. Gas would have to more than triple before fuel alone priced miners out.
“mining”